Mastering the Art of Dinner-on-Demand Services

A special report on personal technology for health, family and fitness.

When it comes to planning, shopping, preparing and cooking healthy dinners for my family, I admit defeat. I’ve tried cooking a dozen dinners on the weekend to freeze for the week. I’ve collected “busy mom” cookbooks, and I’ve tried all the crock-pot cooking my family could stomach. (The last time I made a stew, someone in my family actually cried. O.K., I admit, it was me. My husband and daughter just threw theirs away and ordered pizza.)

But I’ve finally decided that as a working mom trying my best, there are only so many things I can feel bad about, and cooking is no longer one of them. That doesn’t mean I gave up on family dinnertime. Instead, I turned to a crop of high-tech dinner-on-demand services now available just about anywhere there’s an Internet connection.

I’m not alone in my struggles to cook dinner. Data from the Department of Commerce shows that this year, for the first time, Americans began spending more money dining out than on buying groceries. The boxed-meal business is now a $5 billion industry as companies cater to families seeking the convenience of takeout and the taste and virtue of home cooking.

The services break down into three main categories: fully prepared, ready-to-heat-and-serve meals (Munchery, Fresh Diet); “meal kits” packed with all the ingredients you need and a recipe card, delivered to your doorstep (Blue Apron, Plated); and subscription meal-planning services that give you shopping lists and inspiration, but no actual food (PlateJoy, The Fresh 20).

I started with the full meal service offered by Munchery. All of the dishes are prepared by restaurant-quality chefs, who serve up regionally sourced, fresh food that’s beautifully presented. Some of my picks included “Grilled Duroc Pork Loin With Wild Mushroom Farrotto Kale and Salsa Verde” and “Roasted Rainbow Cauliflower With Sesame, Lemon and Tahini Sauce.” Each dish comes with a nutritional breakdown of calories, fat and other information. The meals are delivered in a reheatable containers so you don’t even have to dirty a dish.

You can sign up online or through Munchery’s app, type in your ZIP code and choose from a menu that’s specific to your region. Right now, this service is available only in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Seattle and Los Angeles, but the company has plans to expand to at least 10 more cities in the next few years.

This is as close as I’ve found to having a personal chef, much easier than cooking, and for about $30 for dinner plus leftovers for my family of three, less expensive (where I live) than eating out. The only drawback is that some of the main courses crept into the 700-calorie range.

For a little more control over what goes into your dinner, you can try a meal kit. Meal kits save you planning and shopping time, but you still have to do the cooking. Three of the most popular providers are Plated, Blue Apron, and HelloFresh. They all work similarly — log in online or via their app — choose from a selection of seasonal meals, and let them deliver the recipe instructions and ingredients. Subscription prices range from $10 to $15 per meal.

I was really excited the first time a large insulated box of meat, vegetables, and spice packets arrived at my doorstep from Plated. But my spirits sank as I unpacked ground lamb and beef and a whole eggplant. The recipe for “Baked Eggplant with Beef, Lamb, Fresh Mozzarella and Pine Nuts,” called for what seemed like at least an hour of preparation and cooking.

I didn’t have time to cook it the first night. Or the second. Or the third.

I confessed to a couple of friends about the unused meal kit in my fridge, only to find out they had had the same experience. One told me she ordered seven weeks of delivered ingredients with recipe cards that largely went to waste. “If you’re prone to eating takeout, you’re not going to suddenly turn yourself into a home cook,” she said. “The problem wasn’t just not having the ingredients or knowing how to cook, I simply didn’t have the time or lifestyle and was imposing a construct on myself that didn’t work.”

But meal kits can be a great change of pace for some home cooks. My friend Randy began using Blue Apron a few times a week while he was in graduate school. And now that he’s working, he uses it to save time, try new recipes and create quality time with his partner in the kitchen. “My favorite dish was the Crispy Catfish and Cracked Freekeh,” he said. “I never would have bought catfish, but it was really tasty.”

A busy couple who I know — one’s a surgeon, the other an award-winning sound engineer — always find time for home-cooked meals and school lunches for their two daughters by using The Fresh 20, a web-based subscription service that, for a $65 annual fee, delivers a weekly shopping list of 20 fresh ingredients you can use to make an entire week’s worth of meals.

Other similar services such as PlateJoy or Gathered Table also offer weekly meal plans with coordinating shopping lists. Gathered Table starts at $7 a month and also will send the ingredients to your home if you live in one of itsdelivery areas. PlateJoy’s secret sauce is a personality quiz that the company says helps pinpoint “your preferences, time constraints, and health goals,” so that it can create a customized meal plan. The service costs $14 a month.

After trying more than a half dozen of the various services out myself, I’ve discovered that no amount of technology can turn me into Julia Child. If you’re really too busy to cook, a box of food and a recipe card aren’t enough to put dinner on the table. Fortunately for me, I’ve found a low-tech solution to my cooking challenge. I married a man who loves to cook, and he is now the one teaching my daughter in the kitchen. And thanks to him — not a meal delivery service — I’m not eating a bowl of cold cereal every night.